


Of Birds and Bees

by Araminia16



Series: Of Growing Up [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Horror, Mike being Mike, Nancy being a good sister, Puberty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 09:58:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12679548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Araminia16/pseuds/Araminia16
Summary: Eleven gets a surprise one October night in the form of puberty knocking at the door and Mike does his best to help her with it and recruits some assistance from an old party member.





	Of Birds and Bees

I did another one. Sort of funny this time. I might do one or two more depending on how loud my muse is shouting at me but anyway. Enjoy!

XxOXX

Mike Wheeler was good at a few things. DM’ing, running the AV equipment and being a good friend. The one thing he thought that he was amazing at was reading his girlfriend. Jane Hopper, but he is sure he’s never called her anything but “El” or “Eleven” the whole time they have been with one another. 

There was something wrong with her. She was quiet, well quieter than usual, and she had this furrow between her eyebrows that wasn’t usually there. At times he even saw her wince a little bit and she just seemed sick or something. But otherwise she was fine. No coughing, fever, which he knew because she was currently pressed against his side and curled up on the couch. It was scary movie night. Mostly a formality since they had lived through multiple scary movies at this point. It was an excuse to get together on a Saturday night in October that no one would bat an eye at. 

They had a couch in front of the tv, several blankets and the chairs were even reclined as the group ate popcorn and chips and took drinks of their caffeinated sugary beverages. 

El curled up with her knees nearly to her chest and shifted around restlessly. Lucas and Max were on the opposite end of the couch sharing their own PG rated embrace and the other two members of the party each took up a chair. He really wasn’t even sure which movie they had picked out but he was only half watching it anyway. 

El shifted again and her limbs stretched out as she leaned away from him. “Bathroom.” She whispered to him before she stood and made her way through his house. He kind of liked watching her go to be honest, but loved watching her walk toward him even more. 

A scream drew his attention back to the screen sharply and Will jumped, “Shit!” He hissed at the TV and the rest of them seemed to fare not much better than he had. 

He continued to watch the TV until the back of his neck broke out in goosebumps. “Mike.” He looked around to see if anyone else had heard his name and finding not he still stood up and walked thorugh the house to where he heard Eleven’s frantic whispers. The ten steps became five as he knocked softly on the bathroom door. 

“El. Are you okay?” 

“I don’t know.” She whispered, and he could feel her fear through the door.

“What’s wrong?” 

“There’s blood.” She frantically half-whispered. “It won’t stop.”

“Do you want me to come in?” Mike was pressed against the door as if attempting to meld through it, heart pounding with the need to quiet her fears. 

“I don’t know.”

“Is it your nose?” She still got her nosebleeds but a lot less now. She was so much stronger than she had been when she closed the gate. He knew that sometimes people could put ice to a nosebleed and it would stop or if they tipped their head back. 

“No. It’s coming from between my legs.” 

Mike Wheeler was certainly not prepared for that answer and his fifteen year old brain blanked. Static reigned and he couldn’t think of anything to say. “Uhhh.”

“Mike? What do I do?” Her voice, now pleading and tearful snapped him out of his shock.

“Make sure you have clothes on and open the door.” He had no idea what to do. That was a girl thing. All girls knew about the girl thing. They had a talk on it in like the sixth grade or something. But she hadn’t been to the sixth grade like the rest of them. He had to help her though. She didn’t know. Who would know about girl stuff? His brain just kept running on a loop until an idea popped into his head like a lightbulb coming on. 

When Eleven opened the door and he saw that she had been crying a little he took the time to brush her tears away with a thumb before he took her hand and ran upstairs. He knocked on a closed door a few times and a muffled but irritated voice sounded from within, “What?”

“Hey Nancy. I need your help.” Jesus. What did his voice just do? 

“What?” He heard her footsteps and she opened the door to glare at him. “I’m busy. Hey Eleven.”

“I need your help.”

“Yes?”

“Uhhh.” And he could feel his face start to turn red, “El needs your help.”

“Why?”

“CauseIthinksheisgettingthatgirlthing.” That wasn’t even a sentence. Come on Wheeler stop being a sissy.

“Girl thing?”

“With the blood and stuff.” He finished lamely.

Nancy looked at him in confusion before slow comprehension dawned on her face and she looked a little wide eyed at his girlfriend. “Oh.”

“Can you help her?”

“Why me?” 

“Cause you are a girl. That’s why.”

“That doesn’t make me qualified to teach a girl about her period you know.” Nancy hissed out.

“Yeah it does.” The word ‘period’ only made his blush worse. “Look. She needs help and I don’t know what to do.” 

Nancy took another look at Eleven who just looked miserable and confused and sighed. “Come in.” 

“Thanks Nancy.” He let go of Eleven’s hand and she made a frantic sound and grasped for it again. 

“Mike. Don’t leave.” 

Mike Wheeler did not want to sit through girls talking about their periods but she was looking at him like she was terrified, her brown eyes begging him not to go that he sighed and let her take him into Nancy’s room. 

When the door was closed the two younger teens stood awkwardly as Nancy stared at them both. “Okay. So do you know anything at all about what is going on with you?”

Eleven shook her head. 

“Oh boy. Okay so…nothing at all?”

Eleven shook her head again.

“Did Hopper tell you anything about growing up or…no of course he didn’t. So what is going on with you is all a part of getting older. IT happens to all girls eventually. Some start earlier than others. Like Janet. She started her period at like ten.”

“Period?”

“That’s what the bleeding is called.”

Mike could only listen in horror. Horror that his wide eyes and pale visage mirrored. 

“It’s not like my nose. It kept coming.” Eleven told the older girl.

“Yeah. It will do that for a few days then it will stop. You might also feel more upset at things or feel really tired or get cramps.”

“Cramps?”

“It’s a bit like a stomach ache but hurts more and it is lower than your belly. It’s totally normal but those suck too.”

“Oh.” Eleven looked relieved. “How can I make those go away?

“Sometimes with medicine but if you get something warm on it, which helps too. Then after it is over it comes back every month for like twenty or thirty years.”

“Years?! Why?” Eleven pouted. She didn’t like this at all.

“Oh honey. Every girl asks that question. Soon it will be no big deal though.”

“What do I do?”

“Well I’ll let you borrow some pads so you don’t stain up your clothes too badly. In fact, come with me.” Nancy made way for her door and Eleven followed. Mike felt like he should just melt into the floor. In fact if his girlfriend wasn’t holding onto his hand like her life depended on it he might have. With a stumble he was pulled along back to the bathroom and this was where he drew the line. HE wanted to be supportive but this was not anywhere he wanted to be. 

“Mike should stay out of here. This is sort of private. Just girl time.” 

Mike mouthed a grateful ‘Thank you’ while El’s back was turned then she looked worriedly back at him but relinquished her death grip on his fingers and followed Nancy into the bathroom. Mike took up post down the hall a bit so that he wouldn’t hear details while still being there if she needed him. 

Once the door was closed Nancy turned on Eleven and reached into a cabinet to pull out some sanitary napkins and proceeded to show Eleven how to open it, how it folded out and that it had a sticky side that she had to peel the paper from. “Now, pants down.” At the younger girl’s look she sighed, “I know. It’s weird but I have to tell and show you how to do this.” 

Eleven did as bid and sat down on the closed toilet. Nancy handed her the pad. 

“Now. Peel that off. Good and turn it so that the sticky side is on your underwear. Okay. You kind of have to find where it is going to get most of the blood into it. Sometimes they don’t do a great job. The middle is good…okay now that’s it. All done.” Nancy couldn’t help but smile a bit. That wasn’t so hard. She rocked her first parenting lesson. 

“Why is it happening now?” Her small voice brought Nancy out of her congratulatory mental state. Eleven had pulled everything back into place and was now standing in the small room.

“Oh. Well it depends on the girl, but you are starting a little later than most probably because of how you grew up but it basically is sort of like cleaning.”

“Cleaning?”

“Yeah. Getting the old stuff out so that you can make fresh stuff.”

“Stuff for what?”

“Oh. Well your period basically means that you are a ‘woman’ now or whatever. It’s a shitty way to say it though.”

“A woman?”

“Yeah. The reason you get a period is basically saying that now you can have babies.”

“Babies?” Her eyes sort of lit up in a way that made Nancy very nervous.

“Yeah but you shouldn’t have babies any time soon.”

“Why not? Aren’t babies good?”

Nancy although needed to start steering this conversation in a different direction nodded in an ambiguous way, “Well. I mean. Yeah. Babies are cute and everything but a baby would not be a good idea now.”

“Because of Papa?”

“Well yeah but you are too young for a baby. You need to be older. Much older. And married and have a good income and everything before you have a baby.”

“Oh. Well when I want a baby how does it happen?”

Oh shit. Abort Nancy. Abort. “I…well. It’s not something you need to know about right now. It’s a grown up thing.”

“How grown up?”

“Very. Like. Until you are thirty.”

“Why?” 

“Because the thought of my little brother having sex totally grosses me out.” Nancy gave disgusted shivers and gagged a little bit. 

“Sex?”

Well shit. “Okay. Lesson’s over. Out you go.”

“Should I ask Hop about it?”

“NO!” Nancy practically shouted. “No. If you ask him about sex he won’t let you within ten feet of my little brother without a chaperone until you leave his house. That would be a bad idea.”

“He won’t keep me from Mike again.” The lights flickered a little bit and Nancy nodded.

“Just don’t mention that to him. Or Mike. Or anyone.”

“Well then who can I talk to about sex?”

“No more sex. And maybe you can talk to Will’s mom. She can even give you some advice about becoming a woman.”

“Okay. Ow.” She held a hand to her lower belly and Nancy jumped up to reach into the cabinet for some pain reliever. She deposited two pills into her hand and held them out for Eleven to take. 

Eleven stared at the pills. “I don’t want them. Papa and the bad men gave me stuff like that. I didn’t like it.” 

“Oh honey. These won’t hurt you. They will help those cramps. I’ll give them to you. You don’t have to take them but if you want to they will be there, okay?” 

Eleven nodded and Nancy swooped in to hug her. “Thank you.” 

“No problem. You are basically like my little sister anyway. And before you go let me write down what you need to tell Hop to buy for you, okay? He might get a little funny like Mike did about it and give it to Will’s mom to do but he will get you what you need. And before you leave just call up here and I will give you a few more to take home for tonight.”

“Thank you, Nancy.” 

“No problem. Now try not to freak my brother out too much.” 

They exited the bathroom and Mike jumped up from his seat then hurried over to Eleven, checking her over. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Now I am. Can we go back downstairs now?”

“Yeah. Sure. Anything you need. Do you want some water? Or more food or a blanket or anything?”

Nancy watched her brother in amazement. Most guys would be turning tail and running away. But not him. He’s faced monsters from another dimension and school bullies and Eleven’s lucky to have him. She gave a smile to the couple. 

“Thanks Nancy. Thank you for helping.” 

“No problem. If you need anything else remember to knock.”

Eleven nodded, her brown curls bouncing up and down as the two teens went back downstairs to watch the rest of the movie. 

The others didn’t say anything as they came back into the room but Max did give Eleven a look, the one that said they would talk later but as she snuggled back into Mike’s embrace she thought about what Nancy had said and decided that she would talk to Joyce about everything later. 

Burrowing into Mike’s side he reached down to her belly under the blankets and held his warm hand over her lower belly with just a little bit of pressure to relieve the pain that had only been getting worse through the day. 

Eleven smiled and kissed his cheek before turning her attention to the movie. 

It was later that night when Jim Hopper read Nancy’s note that Eleven watched him turn white in the face and drive straight home. 

XxOxX

Since I guess a bit of the fandom is shitting on Nancy I decided to write her as the one who helps El with her growing up. I’m not sure how in character she sounded but I did my best. In 1 hour.


End file.
